bottom Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the lower side of anything
    undersurface; underside.
  2. noun the lowest part of anything
    • they started at the bottom of the hill
  3. noun the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
    bum; seat; stern; keister; tail end; prat; rear end; buns; tail; tush; rump; fanny; ass; behind; tooshie; hind end; posterior; hindquarters; butt; nates; rear; arse; buttocks; backside; derriere; can; fundament.
    • he deserves a good kick in the butt
    • are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?
  4. noun the second half of an inning; while the home team is at bat
    bottom of the inning.
  5. noun a depression forming the ground under a body of water
    bed.
    • he searched for treasure on the ocean bed
  6. noun low-lying alluvial land near a river
    bottomland.
  7. noun a cargo ship
    merchant ship; freighter; merchantman.
    • they did much of their overseas trade in foreign bottoms
  8. verb provide with a bottom or a seat
    • bottom the chairs
  9. verb strike the ground, as with a ship's bottom
  10. verb come to understand
    penetrate; fathom.
  11. adjective situated at the bottom or lowest position
    • the bottom drawer
  12. adjective satellite the lowest rank
    • bottom member of the class

WordNet

Bot"tom noun
Etymology
OE. botum, botme, AS. botm; akin to OS. bodom, D. bodem, OHG. podam, G. boden, Icel. botn, Sw. botten, Dan. bund (for budn ), L. fundus (for fudnus), Gr. (for ), Skr. budhna (for bhudhna), and Ir. bonn sole of the foot, W. bon stem, base. *257>. Cf. 4th Found, Fund, n.
Definitions
  1. The lowest part of anything; the foot; as, the bottom of a tree or well; the bottom of a hill, a lane, or a page.
    Or dive into the bottom of the deep. Shak.
  2. The part of anything which is beneath the contents and supports them, as the part of a chair on which a person sits, the circular base or lower head of a cask or tub, or the plank floor of a ship's hold; the under surface.
    Barrels with the bottom knocked out. Macaulay.
    No two chairs were alike; such high backs and low backs and leather bottoms and worsted bottoms. W. Irving.
  3. That upon which anything rests or is founded, in a literal or a figurative sense; foundation; groundwork.
  4. The bed of a body of water, as of a river, lake, sea.
  5. The fundament; the buttocks.
  6. An abyss. Obs. Dryden.
  7. Low land formed by alluvial deposits along a river; low-lying ground; a dale; a valley. "The bottoms and the high grounds." Stoddard.
  8. (Naut.) The part of a ship which is ordinarily under water; hence, the vessel itself; a ship.
    My ventures are not in one bottom trusted. Shak.
    Not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the same bottoms in which they were shipped. Bancroft.
  9. Power of endurance; as, a horse of a good bottom.
  10. Dregs or grounds; lees; sediment. Johnson.
Bot"tom adjective
Definitions
  1. Of or pertaining to the bottom; fundamental; lowest; under; as, bottom rock; the bottom board of a wagon box; bottom prices. Milton.
Bot"tom transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Bottomed (); present participle & verbal noun Bottoming
Definitions
  1. To found or build upon; to fix upon as a support; -- followed by on or upon.
    Action is supposed to be bottomed upon principle. Atterbury.
    Those false and deceiving grounds upon which many bottom their eternal state]. South.
  2. To furnish with a bottom; as, to bottom a chair.
  3. To reach or get to the bottom of. Smiles.
Bot"tom intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To rest, as upon an ultimate support; to be based or grounded; -- usually with on or upon.
    Find on what foundation any proposition bottoms. Locke.
  2. To reach or impinge against the bottom, so as to impede free action, as when the point of a cog strikes the bottom of a space between two other cogs, or a piston the end of a cylinder.
Bot"tom noun
Etymology
OE. botme, perh. corrupt. for button. See Button.
Definitions
  1. A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon. Obs.
    Silkworms finish their bottoms in . . . fifteen days. Mortimer.
Bot"tom transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To wind round something, as in making a ball of thread. Obs.
    As you unwind her love from him, Lest it should ravel and be good to none, You must provide to bottom it on me. Shak.

Webster 1913